Vanilla Thins Recipes

VANILLA WAFER COOKIES THAT ARE BETTER THAN STOREBOUGHT

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Beat butter and sugar in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy; beat in egg and vanilla extract. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and mix the dry ingredients thoroughly into butter mixture. Drop cookies about 2 inches apart, 1 teaspoon at a time, onto ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until edges of cookies are golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool cookies on wire racks.

VANILLA THINS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Beat butter, sugar, and salt with an electric mixer at moderately high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and mix at low speed until just combined. Add flour and mix until just combined.
• Drop level teaspoons of batter about 3 inches apart on buttered baking sheets. Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until just golden around edges, 6 to 8 minutes. Cool on baking sheet on a rack 1 minute, then transfer with a metal spatula to rack to cool completely.

LIGHT AND CRISP VANILLA WAFERS

Steps:

• Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat to 400 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Sift the cake flour onto a sheet of parchment paper and set aside.
• Combine the whole egg, egg white, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract and water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on high speed until lightened in color and thickened, 3 to 4 minutes.
• With the mixer running on low speed, slowly pour in the butter and oil. Increase the speed to high and beat for 30 seconds.
• Turn off the machine and add all of the flour. Mix on low speed. Stop to scrape the bowl and whisk. Mix on low speed until the batter is smooth and thick.
• Transfer the batter to an 18-inch (or larger) pastry bag fitted with a coupler and 1/2-inch round tip. Alternatively, use a gallon-size resealable plastic bag with a corner snipped off to make a 1/2-inch opening.
• Pipe 5 quarter-size mounds of batter in 8 rows on each of the prepared baking sheets. You should have 80 mounds total. Pipe any extra batter into the empty spaces.
• Bake, rotating and switching the positions of the baking sheets halfway through, until the edges of the wafers turn a deep golden brown, 14 to 15 minutes total.
• Let the wafers cool completely on the baking sheets. They will crisp as they cool.

VANILLA BEAN THINS

Steps:

• Make vanilla sugar:
• Scrape vanilla seeds from pod with tip of a knife into confectioners sugar. Halve pods crosswise and bury in sugar. Cover tightly and let stand at least 24 hours and up to 1 month.
• Make cookies:
• Discard pods and transfer vanilla sugar to a food processor. Add flour, salt, and baking powder and pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse just until mixture is in pea-size lumps. Add yolk and pulse just until a dough forms. Gather dough into 2 balls, then flatten into 2 (5-inch) disks and chill, each disk wrapped well in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Roll out 1 disk (keep the other chilled) to less than 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Cut out shapes with floured cookie cutter and chill scraps. Arrange cookies 1/2 inch apart on a buttered large baking sheet. Make more cookies with remaining dough, rerolling scraps (but only once).
• Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until edges are pale golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.